Martin Luther King

Annual Sing for King concert features local soloists The city of Laurel and the Laurel Clergy Association will present the fifth annual Sing for King celebration on Sunday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 15000 First Baptist Lane (off Cherry Lane just west of Van Dusen Road). The free celebration marks the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the eve of the King holiday. The celebration will feature the Sing for King Choir performing works by Mack Statham, a Laurel composer and organist at First United Methodist Church.

A few words on the death of Elwin Wilson. He passed last week in a South Carolina hospital at age 76. Wilson had endured heart and lung problems and had suffered a recent bout with the flu. There is little reason you would know his name, but as a young man, Wilson made a virtual career out of hatefulness. He was a Klan supporter who burned crosses, hanged a black doll in a noose, once flung a jack handle at an African-American boy. In 1961, he was among a group of men who attacked a busload of Freedom Riders at a station in Rock Hill, S.C. In none of those things was he unique, so no, his name should ring no bells.

Once upon a long time ago, a tired man faced an audience of public workers. They were on a wildcat strike, demanding the right to bargain collectively and to have the city for which they worked automatically deduct union dues from their paychecks. The city's conservative mayor had flatly refused these demands. "You are doing many things here in this struggle," the tired man assured them. "You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. " Too often, he said, folks looked down on people like them, people who did menial or unglamorous work.

Rush Limbaugh thinks John Lewis should have been armed. "If a lot of African-Americans back in the '60s had guns and the legal right to use them for self-defense, you think they would have needed Selma?" he said recently on his radio show, referencing the 1965 voting rights campaign in which Mr. Lewis, now a congressman from Georgia, had his skull fractured by Alabama state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. "If John Lewis had had a gun, would he have been beat upside the head on the bridge?"

The Maryland Memorial Tribute to Mrs. Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Lu ther King Jr. combined speeches, music, poetry, film and prayer in an event Sun day at Anne Arundel Community College. The event, which also marked the 38th anniversary of the Rev. King's assassination, helped raise $5,000 toward a memorial to the couple planned on the college's Arnold campus.

When a coalition of Atlanta business leaders and philanthropists pledged to purchase 7,000 pages of the private papers of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in June for $32 million, its efforts were hailed by many as a step toward preserving an important chapter of American - and Atlanta - history. The collection, which was headed for the auction block at Sotheby's, serves as a virtual timeline - for the civil rights movement, the turbulent 1960s and King's personal life. The agreement, which lets Morehouse College house the documents in a library it shares with three other schools, spared the papers from possible purchase by a private collector.

It looks as if readers need a little help identifying the people in last issue's Flashback. Coretta Scott King (fifth from right) leads a "March on Memphis" on April 9, 1968, five days after the assassination of her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Her daughter Yolanda and sons, Martin III and Dexter, are to the left of her. To her immediate right are King's successor in the civil rights movement and a former Atlanta mayor. Name these men. Write to unisun@baltsun.com or UniSun Flashback, Features Department, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21278.

Here is a sampling of services honoring the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.:TODAY* 20th annual memorial breakfast sponsored by the YMCA of Greater Baltimore, Martin's West, 6817 Dogwood Road. 7:30 a.m. Information: 837-9622.* Seventh annual memorial breakfast sponsored by the Baltimore Teachers Union and the Federation of Maryland Teachers, Omni Inner Harbor hotel. 9:45 a.m. Information: 358-6600.TOMORROW* Hopkins King Tribute, noon, Turner Auditorium at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

On December 19, 2009, WARREN G. BARBER, SR., beloved husband of Darcus Barber. On Monday, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road from 4:00 to 8:00 P.M. On Tuesday, services for Mr. Barber will be held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial UMC, 5114 Windsor Mill Road, where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11:00 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to 410-655-0015.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday will be commemorated on Monday, and the mainstream media will depict King as a benign figure who might have stepped out of a Hallmark card. What is emphasized is King's fight for racial equality — certainly laudable and worthy of celebration. What is downplayed, often ignored, is King's challenge to this country to recognize and correct an economic inequality that has deleterious effects on both black and white Americans. In addition to his opposition to the Vietnam War, King warned us that, "a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Though Jan. 21 was a school holiday for students around the country, a number of students were on a school campus earlier this week. McDaniel College welcomed nearly 100 Carroll County schoolchildren on Monday to the fourth annual Martin Luther King Day of celebration and reflection. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., students of all ages participated in a variety of activities that celebrated King's life and provided a service to the community. "Every year, it is different," said Nora Muarry, coordinator for youth development and service-learning for Carroll County Public Schools.

She'd never seen a presidential inauguration in her life, or wanted to, but on Jan. 20, 2009, Nathasa Werts braved bone-chilling weather and a crowd of more than a million people for a trip to Washington. The nation had just elected its first black president, after all, and Werts, an African-American mother of three, finally felt a part of the process. "Our ancestors were slaves, and that's an ugly past, but that election told us we have the power to turn all that around," the Pikesville woman recalled.

This schedule will be in effect Monday, Jan. 21: Government offices Closed in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Frederick counties, and in Baltimore City and Annapolis. Courts Closed in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Frederick counties, and in Baltimore City and Annapolis. Libraries Closed in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Frederick counties and Baltimore City. Public schools Closed in all jurisdictions.

You might call this a requiem for reverence. It seems that one Jeffrey Darnell Paul, a graphic artist from Miami Beach, had been tasked with creating a poster for a strip club's so-called "I Have a Dream Bash" last week in apparent "honor" of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. So this genius concocts an image of the nation's greatest human rights leader holding up a fan of $100 dollar bills like some low-rent "playa" while a scantily clad woman looks on. Mr. Paul, let the record show as African-Americans duck their heads in mortification, is black.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy is far wider than ending segregation ("Across the nation, King Day marked with rallies, service," Jan. 17). In addition to his on-going fight for racial justice, King was speaking out against economic injustice and militarism, especially the war in Vietnam. At the end of his life, King was on his way to join striking sanitation workers in Memphis to plan a Poor People's Campaign. The campaign's goals were jobs, income and housing. King had said, "We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the war and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism and poverty.

Persistent brisk southwest winds and temperatures hovering in the low 40s failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the spirited crowd that gathered at noon Monday in downtown Baltimore to honor the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 92Q DJ Konan and his sidekick, Erica Kane, shouted to the crowd from the official reviewing stand at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Franklin Street before the parade kicked off, "We're going to have a hot parade...

Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy is far wider than ending segregation ("Across the nation, King Day marked with rallies, service," Jan. 17). In addition to his on-going fight for racial justice, King was speaking out against economic injustice and militarism, especially the war in Vietnam. At the end of his life, King was on his way to join striking sanitation workers in Memphis to plan a Poor People's Campaign. The campaign's goals were jobs, income and housing. King had said, "We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the war and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism and poverty.

The stories of the Evers, King and Shabazz families ar entwined with the decades-long struggle to integrate American society. Over the next two days, the landmark events of those years will be chronicled.1975Jan. 24: The Washington Post reports that the FBI wiretapped Dr. King's phones during the 1964 Democratic National Convention.Feb. 28: A U.S. District Court judge in Memphis denies Ray's motion to withdraw his guilty plea.Oct. 23: Martin Luther King III turns 18.1976Nov. 16: Attallah Shabazz turns 18.1978Jan.

We celebrate the life and dream of a man of faith, courage and leadership - Martin Luther King Jr. A special focus of the 2012 Martin Luther King observance is turning it into a day of service, with numerous community projects taking place across the country, including weatherizing homes, beautifying schools, serving meals and supporting veterans and military families. By turning the observance into a day of service, we advance King's dream of economic opportunity, equality, and social justice for all. King would have turned 83 years old on Jan. 15. Though his time with us was too brief, the wisdom of the messages he brought forth as a young man still hold today.

On this national holiday, it's a great time to listen again (or for the first time) to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, which he delivered to a huge crowd of supporters in Washington in 1963. The short speech, only about 16 minutes, seems almost quaint at some points, as King talks of "the Negro" and mixes in Old Testament references. But you also get a feel for his powerful oratory -- the repetitive phrases that build upon each other, gaining strength each time.